Juan Siliang

This donghua is one of the most detailed and beautifully animated donghuas I've seen.

Brief Summary: Its story takes place on an island of exiled/criminal deities(or immortals), trapped because either they or their ancestors broke some rules in the upper world. Among these exiled deities exists a mortal who arrived at this island around 10 years ago. 10 years ago, not long after her arrival, an incident happened where someone tried to escape the imprisonment and failed. Now 10 years later, a status quo has been established and life has returned mostly to normal, until a new batch of mortals arrives to once again kick ... off a storm (especially because of what happened 10 years ago after the first batch of mortals arrived).

The story is told mostly through eyes of Tu Li, the sole mortal on the island, and Jing Xuan, whose family caused the incident 10 years ago and thought to have died. Tu Li wishes to leave the island because she wants to see the world her father came from and because of the discrimination against her by the local inhabitants; Jing Xuan was rescued by someone in order to help her escape, but he wants to unravel the mysteries behind his parent's failure during the incident 10 years ago. Other families and factions are portrayed quite well, as each individual character has their own unique traits and goals in this donghua.

My only complaint about this donghua is its length. We get to see the status quo, and the breaking of the status quo due to the arrival of a new batch of mortals. Now things have been shaken up, and long repressed conflicts are about to break out again, but the show then ends. It certainly leaves a good hook to encourage watching the second season (whenever it comes out), but the cut off seems a bit too abrupt. Despite that, I highly recommend this.

The first episode has an absurd amount of information to absorb and they don't tone it down. This show definitely takes patience to sit through. But each subsequent episode slowly breaks down all the confusing stuff in episode one, so you won't be completely overwhelmed.

The main female lead: Tu Li, is awesome. If this was a game, I definitely main her. She isn't weak, has an ambitious personality, and all around skilled. The male lead feels a bit of a Mary Sue, but this season barely reveals anything about him, so i will reserve my opinion.

I would say the elder dynamic is very ... interesting. It's a typical story writing to have rival families fight amongst each other in these Chinese anime, but it never gets old. I am definitely on team Elder Feng if you know what I mean!

The visuals are honestly stunning and I am pretty sure most people watched the series because of it. Everything is gorgeous and is probably what kept me going despite the confusing story. Man, why I can't I be as pretty as the people in this show?

The island of Siliang Recap (minor spoilers)
Siliang island is a mythical land surrounded by vast never-ending seas; The inhabitants are stray gods that have been exiled by command of other gods in the heaven realm. On Siliang island, gods succumb to mortal fate by aging or falling ill to sickness while most of their cultivation have been suppressed or wiped completely. They have no way of leaving the island since they dissolve when submerged in sea water; They do however believe of heavenly redemption, an event that occurs every 500 years where representatives of the heaven realm will open a portal and descend on the ... island where exiled gods can return after passing trials.

Among the gods community are several families/factions that have come to a mutual agreement of ruling on the island. Each faction nominates an elder that takes part in diplomatic decisions and rule-enforcement on the island. 10 years prior to the story, the Shang family used a forbidden formation sacrificing children in order to return to the heavenly realm early; After a shred of guilt, Shang wife attempts to fall into the sea while the castor, Shang husband follows. After the unsuccessful attempt of saving the wife and completing the formation Siliang island was in panic as the formation caused rising in sea levels killing many immortals and gods. The Siliang residents assumed the Shang family had been wiped out but under the guise of a powerful elder, the Shang son waits for the moment to discover what truly happened that caused his parent's demise.

Story & Characters: 8/10
The first 4 episodes feel very empty and uneventful; Most of the details shared this early in the series made no sense and discerning the main character became a confusing task. However, after episode 4 the story begins to take shape and the characters introduced in the beginning start to connect with the story. The island of Siliang takes a mystery adventure approach to cultivation and wuxia elements; We are purposefully fed vague details of events and characters in the beginning to make assumptions and become more engage with the trivial knowledge of SIliang island. The story shows how when stripped of power, the gods think no different than humans by sabotaging each other, failing to recognize their weaknesses and living short lives. The story's antagonist is very confusing and doesn't develop until the end of the season but it allows us to visit every character in depth and familiarize their behavior.
I'm really enjoying this series, it has quite a few flaws but the characters are written so detailed - they each have their own struggles which is clearly displayed throughout the series. (Xu Daughter's struggle is arranged inheriting marriage, Xiang Yu/Ji struggle is his family's imprisonment, Tu Li's struggle is her father, Jing Xuan's struggle is his parents and attraction to Tu Li and so forth. In contrast to many mystery anime, this donghua definitely beats it in keeping me engaged most of the time especially with characters that have a lot of conflict with each other and have different connections/relations.

Art & Sound: 8/10 & 7/10
Since I really enjoyed the story and characters the art and animation was a bonus for me; The visuals were really detailed you could zoom in and see pores, wrinkles and even individual strands of hair movement. I enjoyed how highly detailed the male character designs were but I wished some of the young female characters didn't have the skin glow/blur because it kind of ruins the character details. The elder characters felt realistic even Xu grandma or grandpa Heng's facial design were very real. You can tell that in order to compensate for the detail, the series opted to go the keyframed route for character rigging. It does seem obvious by the way the characters have robotic movement and mouth movements; I really did find Tu Li's lip biting an interesting touch to her character design though.

The sound wasn't as extravagant for me as the art and animation but I can tell there was a lot of groundwork for voice actors in the island of Siliang. The ambient world sounds didn't feel as atmospheric as I'd hope but it wasn't as bad considering the visual worldbuilding and atmospheric encapsulation.

Overall & Enjoyment: 8/10 & 7/10
The story isn't for everyone; The main character is a female 60% of the time and the other 40% is a mix of characters including Jing Xuan son of Shang family patriarch. A lot of round about character development like Tu Li being deceived by Xiang Yu/Ji because she empathizes with 'mortals' despite having the strength of many immortals. I didn't enjoy Jing Xuan's tsundere phase in the show when he follows Tu Li because it just shows his hypocrisy to take responsibility. It does get somewhat progressed in the end but unintentionally. Overall, really interesting watch and least expected it to be a good donghua.